A Tough Goodbye

Saying goodbye to Ty has been a long time coming. All summer we just kept thinking this is the last time we will do this for 2 years! One weekend Ty came to St George for the weekend and spent some time with just the three of us. We shopped, swam a lot since it was like 115 degrees!, went out to dinner and just enjoyed being together. I think it started to get really real for us at Ty's farewell on July 21st. SO MANY people came down and stayed in Ephraim the night before. It was a really fun weekend. Ty did so amazing on his talk. When he spoke the spirit was strong and I got some peace of mind knowing that he was meant to do this right now. Here are some pictures of that weekend.

I took almost a week off to be home before Ty left. It was so incredible to just spent time as a family, without any of the stresses of life. We stayed up until all hours of the night playing board games, we slept outside one night, ate some good food, watch movies, just savored every single minute together. The night before Ty left he got set apart, then we went up Ephraim canyon and spent one last night with our brother. It was a really special evening. Something I remember Ty telling us was that he knows we are here on this earth for a reason and that Heavenly Father gave us everything so we could have our family together and a sweet little baby to love.

On Wednesday morning we headed to Provo. We went out to eat at Tucano's, took some pictures in front of the Provo temple then had to drop him off at the MTC. It was a hard goodbye. As we rode from the temple to the MTC Ty just held Riken as he slept and just kept kissing him. We were all crying our eyes out, and I remember Zack saying, "Dude, put down the baby. You're killing us!" 

When we got to the MTC there were literally hundreds of missionaries, girls and boys, lining the sidewalk and it gave me the chills big time. I got the coolest feeling, knowing that this was the place for Ty and that he would do so well there. The missionaries were so sweet to my mom, who was hardly breathing from crying so bad! Haha. Ty just looked in his element and I just became really excited and happy for him. Here are some pictures of the days leading up to our tough goodbye:

I will keep you posted on how Ty is doing. He is already doing amazing. He was called as a zone leader during his two short weeks at the MTC and now he is in New York, doing the work. He got to call us the day he flew out. I waited by the phone all day and it was so great to hear his voice. He sounds like him! He sounds happy and he said he's not homesick at all! I am thankful for my brother and the person that he is, and I can't wait to see what the next two years hold for him! 

Summer Recap

Our summer has been so amazing. I feel like because we knew our time with Ty was limited, we really lived it up and enjoyed every single minute. We went home a lot because there was so much going on, and we had some really great times. Here is a little recap of our Summer 2013:

* Chris Cagle and missionary shopping day-

One Saturday we went up north and bought a bunch of Ty's stuff for his mission, enjoyed a good lunch at Tucanos and went to the Chris Cagle concert in Eagle Mountain. It was so much fun! Riken wasn't crazy about the loudness of the concert, but he was good. I think this day was when it started to hit home that Ty was leaving soon. 

*My Birthday-

On June 22nd we celebrated my birthday. It was an eventful day! We went to breakfast at Das Cafe where I got to see one of my very best friends, Miss Erin. Then we did a little shopping and went to Russ and Devri's beautiful wedding. After that we headed home and started what would be one of many night of playing volleyball outside my mom's place. Eventually they finally just bought sand and made us a sand volleyball pit! Everything went perfect on my birthday until that night. We were playing volleyball and I jumped up to get a ball and came down right on Hemi's right shoulder and broke it. She was a mess. We took her to the vet and he said the only thing we could do would be to take her to Instant Care in Orem and have surgery done that night. When I called Instant Care they said we would need to pay the whole bill up front and it could be up to $3000! I didn't know what we were going to do and I was falling apart because I have heard people talk about things like this happening to their pets and they can't afford to pay that much for surgery so they end up having to put them down. We decided to just nurse it for the rest of the weekend and see how she did with it. She did so awesome and was such a good girl through the pain. Now, two months later she is still favoring the other leg, but she doesn't seem to be in pain. She is doing most of the things she used to do and her personality hasn't changed a bit. This day just changed my perspective on a lot of things. Hemi is a big part of our family and things like this make you stop and check your priorities. I'm so glad she came out of this okay!

* Sand Hollow-

The weekend after the 4th, my mom, Ken and Ty came down to St. George and we spent a day at the lake. It was HOT, but it was so much fun. We were all really sad when it was time to leave. 

* Spending time with Dad-

In the weeks before Ty left we were able to spend some time with dad. We went to Lagoon one Saturday and we got a couple good golf games in. I absolutely LOVE being on the golf course with the men in my family. It has always been something we have done in the summer time. The girls drive the golf carts and take pictures while the boys golf. 

* JASON ALDEAN-

The day Jason Aldean tickets went on sale Zack bought tickets for my birthday. Me, Kenz, Zack, Ty, and Kenna went up and got to see the beautiful Jason. We got there and sat in our seats, which were decent, but then a lady working there came and traded our tickets for floor seats! We had such a good time standing on the floor and jamming out to some of our favorite songs. This was a night I will never forget. 

I know there are things I'm forgetting, but these were some of the really awesome days we had. I love my family so much. This summer has been one of the best yet!

Riken Update

Riken is just growing like a little weed! Yesterday he turned 8 months old. I am amazed at this kid. He sits, crawls ALL OVER the place, and stands himself up holding on to something. He says DADA all the time and he just lights up when we walk in the room. When we try to leave him he gets the saddest fact in America. It is the cutest thing. He LOVES animals, especially monkeys and dogs and will giggle at them and try to grab them and play with them. He's still obsessed with Wreck it Ralph and if we can't get him to calm down we just pop it in and it does the trick in a matter of seconds. He loves pears, but will eat about any kind of baby food. He also loves to get in the bathtub and he loves electronics. Phones, remotes, just about anything he will come to you and try and get it. He is a really smart baby and his personality is just so so funny. I cannot even remember what life was like without him. He brings so much light into our family. I'm so behind on blogging that I just have so many pictures of him in the last few months, but I will try and get them in somewhere and here a few for now. Can you even believe how big he is??